Monday, January 21, 2019

There does not seem to be any more detail, yet. To make this work, the ‘vouchers’ must not be identifiable as part of the group stolen. How would they track customer usage? Note: Another easily identified and easily fixed bug?
China's Pinduoduo reports theft of online discount vouchers to police
Chinese online group discounter Pinduoduo Inc said on Sunday that an online collective exploited a loophole on its platform to “steal” tens of millions of yuan worth of discount vouchers.
In a statement on its official Weibo account, Pinduoduo said it immediately rectified the bug and reported the incident to police.




Sounds more like the mafia? Are they this good? What, beside the Hong Kong bank account, points to China?
Cyber Fraud by Chinese Hackers Makes Headlines in India
… The cyber fraud scam started with a fraudulent email from Chinese hackers, spoofed to appear as if it were coming from the CEO of the company in Italy. The message was written in the tone and style of the CEO, and raised the prospect of a “secretive” and “highly confidential” acquisition that could only be pulled off if funds were wired to bank accounts in Hong Kong. After follow-up emails, there were then telephone conference calls between Italy and India, with Chinese fraudsters impersonating top executives and lawyers. They convinced the local Indian office that regulatory rules prevented a direct payment from corporate HQ in Milan; thus, the onus was on the local Indian operation to fund the acquisition. Payments were sent in three separate tranches of $5.6 million, $9.4 million, and $3.6 million. However, just before the fourth and final payment was about to be made, the real chairman of the Italian company showed up in India for a year-end visit. It’s not hard to imagine what happened next.
… But here’s where there is still a lot to explain: how did Chinese fraudsters impersonate top European officials, including one claiming to be a top Swiss lawyer? At some point, wouldn’t really bad accents or awkward phrases tip off the Indian officials that someone was being conned?
… In short, instead of a few hackers in pajamas trying to hack into computer systems from their basements, we may be seeing the rise of sophisticated global crime syndicates and hacking groups that are far more formidable adversaries for corporate IT directors.




No more “fake news” broadcasts? Of course if each of the five recipients forward the message to five friends, who each forward to five friends…
WhatsApp globally limits text forwards to 5 chats to curb rumours
Facebook Inc's WhatsApp messenger service is globally limiting message ‘forwards’ to five chats at a time, a practice it had introduced in India in July last year to crack down on spread of rumours and fake news through its platform.
… The messaging platform—which counts India, Brazil and Indonesia among its major markets—said it will continue to listen to user feedback on their experience, and “over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content”.
… The move comes at a time when governments and regulators across the world are looking at effective ways to curb the spread of fake messages through digital platforms.


(Related) Is this a reversal of the limits above?
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield
Gather a mob and Facebook will now let you make political demands. Tomorrow Facebook will encounter a slew of fresh complexities with the launch of Community Actions, its News Feed petition feature. Community Actions could unite neighbors to request change from their local and national elected officials and government agencies. But it could also provide vocal interest groups a bully pulpit from which to pressure politicians and bureaucrats with their fringe agendas.
Community Actions embodies the central challenge facing Facebook. Every tool it designs for positive expression and connectivity can be subverted for polarization and misinformation.
… The question will be where Facebook’s moderators draw the line on what’s appropriate as a Community Action, and the ensuing calls of bias that line will trigger. Facebook is employing a combination of user flagging, proactive algorithmic detection, and human enforcers to manage the feature. But what the left might call harassment, the right might call free expression. If Facebook allows controversial Community Actions to persist, it could be viewed as complicit with their campaigns, but could be criticized for censorship if it takes one down. Like fake news and trending topics, the feature could become the social network’s latest can of worms.




Only after the rider gets off.
… Details are, as TechCrunch noted, “scarce,” but there’s a lot of speculation that Uber is investigating autonomous versions of the scooters and bikes of the short-term rental type that have already taken over many major cities. The Telegraph reported that Uber has begun hiring for the Micromobility Robotics team, which it wrote had the goal of developing scooters and bikes that can drive to charging stations themselves, or possibly to go and pick up riders after the prior passenger disembarks.
… like competitors Bird and Lime (the latter of which Uber owns a minority stake in) the logistics of using a small army of contractors to pick up the scooters after rides are already a major money-burner.
… As TechCrunch noted, Uber Jump recently unveiled a series of upgrades to give some of its bikes “self-diagnostic capabilities and swappable batteries,” designed to minimize downtime. Self-driving scooters are an obvious way to further streamline the business.




Might be fun to install on someone’s computer without telling them.
This incredibly simple tool gives every website you visit a 'dark mode'
… Go to darkreader.org and click on the web browser you use. You'll be taken to your browser's extensions store where you can download and install Dark Reader for free.
Once you install it, the vast majority of websites you visit will have a dark gray or black color where they used to be white.




I gotta share this with my PhD friends.


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